Released in March 1973 Grand Hotel featured new man Mick Grabham on guitar in a Procol line-up which would
remain constant for half of that decade. Grabham thought so highly of Procol
that he turned down the opportunity of joining former Free artiste Andy Fraser
and his band. The UK music press raved about the
album. But was it a concept album? The cover showed the band in front of The
Grand Hotel at Lake Leman in Switzerland suggesting that it might be. In truth
it only reflected the epic title tack [sic]!
Melody Maker reviewer Richard Williams felt that the title track lived up
to it's [sic] subject; "Expanding on the mood of Van
Dyke Parks created with "Hung velvet overtaken me, Dim Chandelier awaken me" in
the Beach Boys' song Surf's Up. Keith Reid's
lyric speaks of fine wine, rare meats, serenade and sarabande, Dover sole and
Oeufs Mornay, Profiteroles and Peach Flambé, and around all this rich imagery Gary Brooker creates sad minutes [sic] and stately slow foxtrots, based on the rock rhythm
but amplified by a superb arrangement for orchestra and chorus. He has really
learned how to use this medium, making a joke of the most avant-rockers who try
to borrow from classical music, and Grand
Hotelstands with Whaling
Stories and A Salty Dog as the group's
finest achievements (they are, too, almost unique in that the more ambitious
they get, the more they succeed)."

Keith Reid's lyrics display a black humour in the rocking Toujours L'Amour. "The song means long live love",
confessed Reid, "And it is an obvious quip about the song itself". The ballad A Rum Tale shows Reid spoofing "love gone wrong",
and the epic Tv Caeser [sic] is inspired by the TV chat show "Caesers" watched by
people who should be eating their TV Dinners." A
Souvenir of London was banned by the BBC because of it's [sic] subject matter and it [sic]
features drummer (the late) B.J. Wilson playing 22
mandolins. Bringing Home the Bacon is a belter
with classy guitar and organ work from Grabham and Copping, respectively, with arrangements by Gary Brooker
that enable drummer Wilson to punctuate with impeccable rhythm. For Liquorice John, with it's [sic] phased piano and chromatic harp sounds, is dedicated
to a school friend of Brooker's who committed suicide, and the lyrics nod in the
direction of Stevie Smith's poetic line Not Waving, But Drowning. Fires (Which Burnt Brightly) is very European in
flavour and could well have featured in a French movie by Claude Lelouch. It
features the voice of Christianne Legrand, lead
singer with the French based Swingle Singers - a lady with a magically resonant
voice. As Andy Tyler said in Disc in 1973, "Her noo nah noo backings and
scat solo near the middle are exactly right" (!) The concluding track is
lyrically reminiscent of a song about a certain Doctor Robert by the
Beatles, but Brooker's rumbling bassy voice refrains, and a full wall of sound
production, helps to give this track a unique flavour, and a perfect ending.

Grand Hotel reached number 21 in the US Billboard 100, remaining in
that chart for five months. It went on to earn Procol a UK Silver Disc.

Henry Scott Irvine 1995, transc. and
[sic]ed by
Mark Mott 2002:thanks for deciphering the exiguous, OCR-defying ornamental
fontwhich is hard to read even with a magnifying glass!